OPERA singer, theatre performer, breath work and life coach Josh Piterman has become a go-to external high-performance resource for players inside the Western Bulldogs and across the AFL.
Piterman has starred in Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera on London's iconic West End and was part of the international pop opera group The Ten Tenors.
But after writing Behind the Mask in 2025, a book documenting his life as a performer for 20 years and his journey of self-discovery, Piterman has been helping players in Melbourne by freeing them up psychologically so they can perform better physically.
The certified breath work and meditation coach is based out of Pando Society, the holistic wellness centre in Elwood founded by Essendon captain Andrew McGrath.
Piterman is an ambassador of the Western Bulldogs' community foundation and is helping the next generation through his involvement with the sons and daughters of the west program.
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge referenced a passage from his book at last year's Charles Sutton Medal and has built a relationship with Piterman since 2018, before inadvertently revealing his impact on his players at a press conference this week.
So how exactly does this help AFL players?
"I work with individuals from the club to do one-on-one high performance coaching, which is a mix of really science-backed breath work stuff – and we're not sort of just doing mindfulness work – it's around increasing heart rate variability, which, as science tells us that's one of our best indicators of how well we adapt to stress, and basically how resilient our nervous system is," Piterman told AFL.com.au on Thursday.
"There's a beautiful Jon Kabat-Zinn [the American philosopher] quote that says, 'You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf'. And this is how your nervous system can learn to surf through the complexity and the chaos and the pressure of AFL football.
"My theory is that our state – our nervous system – really actually dictates the stories we have, like the negative or the positive self-talk stories and where we put our focus and our attention, and therefore our actions. So if we've got a really dysregulated nervous system, it doesn't end up going well for our story.
"We do a lot of CO2 tolerance work, so that's about really slow, meticulous nasal breathing, ways that help oxygen move into muscles and tissues more efficiently by increasing amount of CO2 tolerance we can take. It's very athlete-based, the breath work we do, so the science of the breath work I do is actually really detailed with these guys."
Piterman isn't employed by the Western Bulldogs but works with a range of players – including Cody Weightman, who has been a big advocate for breath work – and also trains stars from Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, North Melbourne, Melbourne and Sydney.
Former Kangaroos captain Jy Simpkin credits Piterman for helping him overcome the challenge of a failed trade last October, while Chloe Molloy, Sam and Luke Darcy, and McGrath have all endorsed his work, which at its core aims to improve how athletes perform under pressure.
"Footballers are humans too, like we all have an inner critic, and we all have things that have happened to us in our life and they can shape the way we perform. A lot of it is around shifting our focus from outcome-based stuff to really impact-based stuff, so purpose-driven performance," Piterman said.
"There's a lot a lot of events in there and a lot around discovering who they really are. There's this sort of thing that happens to elite performers – and it was the same as a music theatre performer – but for footy players, you become defined by being a football player, and you forget to play football. And that's a really important sentence. Play needs to be at the core of what you're doing, I think, because when you play, you are free and authentic and you're willing to make mistakes.
"When you're on the edge of feeling like I'm going to be dropped or you don't take that 45, you don't take that creative, playful option because you take the kick down the line because you're like, 'I don't want to get benched. I don't want to get dropped.' And so it's about removing all the fears and actually coming back to who's this free, instinctual player inside of you."
On Tuesday, the AFL mandated the appointment of a full-time psychologist within each AFL and AFLW program, following the review of Carlton's handling of Elijah Hollands in round six, which found that greater support is required for players' mental health.
The Western Bulldogs' head psychologist is Dr Andrew Waterson, who works across the program, although he isn't currently employed by the club on a full-time basis and has his own clinic. The club also has long-term player development manager Brent Prismall running the welfare program and recently hired former forward Mitch Hannan to boost that department.
Beveridge is renowned for taking his mid-week press conferences in unexpected directions. Last year he referenced a player from his time coaching St Bede's Mentone in the ammos when asked about Adam Treloar. Last month he revealed he sang a few songs at a brewery during the club's bye.
On Wednesday, Beveridge endorsed the impact of Piterman when the new mandate was put to the 55-year-old, who is almost halfway through his 12th season at the Whitten Oval.
"One thing that will come up in the next few weeks is the use of third-party practitioners. Every club uses them; some players have a preferred psych or life coach that they like to see," Beveridge said.
"I know some of our guys see Josh Piterman, our opera singer and breath educator, among other things – he is such a talented thespian, singer and person and a great and beautiful human. Some of our guys see Josh for life coaching and breath work and things like that. As long as players feel like they are being cared for, that's really important."